Prime Video has been leaning hard into the action genre ever sinceAlan Ritchson’sReacherbecame one of its biggest hits. This year, the streamer has loaded its slate with original films and shows, including one it hopes will capture a similar audience:Butterfly. The new spy thriller putsDaniel Dae Kimin the lead role, marking a long-awaited return to top billing for theLostalum. Unfortunately, ahead of its August 13 premiere, the series is off to a lukewarm critical start with a 70% approval score on Rotten Tomatoes based on just 10 reviews.
Three of those reviews are negative, but the positive ones sound far from faint. Collider’sJasneet Singh— who gave it an 8/10 —called it “a brilliant family drama”disguised as a spy thriller, and applauded its “fluid, mesmerizing choreography” and standout performances from Kim,Reina Hardesty, and Kim Ji-hoon.
“It is also in Rebecca’s relationship with David where we see the most cultural inter-mingling, as David introduces her to Korean culture. From bonding over Makgeolli to having a bilingual approach to the script,the cultural landscape of the show has a lived-in and relatable feel. The locations also reflect this, with each episode being named after a city in South Korea, including ‘Seoul’ and ‘Busan,’ and even filming at well-known, iconic places like Seoul Station and on bullet trains. The show goes beyond the paint-by-numbers representation of just having anAsian-American lead in a Western settingand instead mixes the cultures in a dynamic and meaningful way.Butterflymay not be the mind-blowing spy thriller you expect when you first turn it on, but it’ll win you over with its heart.”
What Is ‘Butterfly’ About?
Based on the BOOM! Studios graphic novels byArash AmelandMarguerite Bennett,Butterflyfollows David Jung (Kim), a retired intelligence officer who returns to South Korea when his past threatens his life and family. His former private espionage agency, Caddis, has seemingly kidnapped his daughter Rebecca (Hardesty) — but when they reunite, he discovers she’s a trained assassin caught between loyalty to him and to Caddis’ leader Juno (Piper Perabo), his ex-partner.
The six-episode series, co-developed for television byKen Woodruff and Steph Cha, blends Korean settings and cultural touchstones with the beats of a Hollywood spy thriller. Each episode is named after a South Korean city, and scenes were filmed in recognizable locations like Seoul Station and on bullet trains. Kim not only stars but also serves as executive producer, leading a cast that includes Perabo,Louis Landau, Park Hae-soo, Kim Tae-hee, and Charles Parnell.
Butterflyis streaming now on Prime Video.
